Tuesday, May 07, 2013

Doing ALL The Landscaping!

Whew, ya'll, it's hard to sit down and write a blog post when it's gorgeous outside and there are outdoorsy-type projects to be done.

What all did I do yesterday when-I-was-supposed-to-be-blogging you ask? Well.

I mowed the lawn. I heart mowing our lawn, and this was the first trim of the year. I get a pseudo-high from the fresh cut grass-smell that permeates through everything, and I LOVE those little groove lines that happen in the lawn from the lawn mower's wheels. And I didn't hit any rocks, thank you very much.

I decided the far corner of the yard looked sad and needed something in it. Since grass refuses to grow there, I put out a Shepard's hook, and hung a strawberry in a planter from it. For the other side of the hook, I made a birdhouse. I can't even tell you how stupid proud I am of this birdhouse. I put shingles on it made of cut up soda cans. It's pretty. Under that, I made three planters out of some scrap wood we had laying around (the same wood used for the birdhouse) and planted spinach and lettuce. Those went at the bottom of the Shepard's hook, along with a new water dish for bird baths and or Mac water breaks. It still looks a little empty, but I think once the "salad bar" grows in and gets fluffy, it'll be nice.

I planted a few new seedlings in the garden. (You haven't seen the garden in a while - I made it way bigger and added a fence and wood chips so now it looks like it's part of the landscape plan instead of just a chunk of dirt in the yard. But that wasn't all yesterday.) We've upgraded; last year we had meager crops of basil, cilantro, oregano, rhubarb, jalepeños, onions, tomatoes, and like, three tiny strawberries (also there was catnip, but I don't eat that so I'm not counting it. Bubba does.) This year, in addition to all of that, we'll also see cucumbers, raspberries, carrots (maybe, I'm not too optimistic), radishes (also maybe), peas, string beans, bell peppers, zucchini, garlic, lettuce and spinach. I have space to add one more plant in there. I'm stuck between yet another tomato plant, or an eggplant plant. I'll take suggestions though - something hardy and not squash (I'm allergic).

I finished the patio set. Which was actually a small dining room set that I found at a thrifty last summer and refinished with outdoor paint, polyurethane, and a big old hole in the middle to accommodate some shade. Adding in the umbrella and the seat cushions, the whole shebang came out to a total of $100 bucks, and I made it, and my favorite part, is the part where I found The Mister's Dremel and became a bit of a vandal. So now we can go back to grilling outside and then eating outside and it makes me so incredibly overjoyed to not go inside when it's this nice out.

I had before pictures of this little set - the black metal chairs with a light-wood top that had seen some love from a family with little kids (paint marks and scratches). Except that was on a phone camera which maybe met it's end the day after I took those photos last summer. Whoops.

And after all that? The Mister and I took Mac for a walk, and he made some friends. They were maybe 20 feet apart. Brave deer. Then again, Mac had literally zero idea what to do with that business, so he just stared back.

click to see larger- objects in photo look further away than they a

Do you have a garden?

What do you recommend for me to try out there in my last remaining plant-space?

What have you done to your landscaping recently that you wanna brag about?

4 comments:

That's funny, because I just spent an entire hour outside today, drafting plans for my entire yard. Then, another hour on Pinterest, planning out ideas for those areas.

I'm so excited for this summer! My husband, is not. But it might be because I keep messaging him questions like, "where's our saw?" "I need pallets" and "Do we have a pressure washer?". He's worried and thinking about coming home to rein me in.

I do have a garden, but I never ever do anything in it. We have a gardener who comes once a week to make sure it doesn't get overgrown, but other than that it does whatever it likes. It's actually a bit like a fairy garden, with overgrown stone fence and mossy walls.